Abstract
Introduction: Higher education is no longer provided solely in the confines of national borders. Now days, the general trend is that students are no more reluctant to cross boundaries and travel to different places for achieving better education. Aim: To explore gulf medical students influencing factors, challenges, and perceptions to study abroad. 
 Methods: Cross sectional prospective study was conducted with self-administered survey which consisted of six sections. The survey was distributed by email to gulf medical students studying in four countries (United Kingdom, Ireland, Kingdom of Bahrain, and Jordan). Data were tubulated on Excel and analysed with SPSS V.22.
 Results: Total responses received that met inclusion criteria were 94 with mean age of 20.89 (68.08% females). 51% of participants were from Kuwait, and 57% of participants were studying in European universities. Broadening personal experience was the main influencing factor to study abroad, and word of mouth from parents and students studying abroad were the main individual influences. Financial issues were the main challenges for studying abroad. Surgical specialities were the desired specialities for future career accounting for 44.7%.
 Conclusion: Understanding the underlying reasons behind a student’s decision to study abroad plays an important part on structuring scholarship and allocating resources. The high rate of students regretting studying abroad and at the same time the high rate of recommendation for other to study abroad indicate that personal satisfaction is a key factor, however, studying abroad does not suit everyone.
Highlights
Higher education is no longer provided solely in the confines of national borders as the horizon of education has widened from national school to global universities
The general trend is that students are no more reluctant to cross boundaries and travel to different places for achieving better education
Study finding are divided into 5 categories as illustrated: a) Influencing factors: The main influencing factor for gulf students to study medicine abroad was to broadening personal experience which was agreed by 93.6% of participants
Summary
Higher education is no longer provided solely in the confines of national borders as the horizon of education has widened from national school to global universities. The world in which we live in today demands global education for students. The importance of studying abroad has been supported since the early 1930s as a key factor in affecting international understanding [1]. Studying abroad offers the ability to learn by doing, interact actively through a trial and error approach and deal with lots of information; all factors that have appeal to Millennial students [2]. National and international education authorities need to understand the underlying reasons behind a students’ decision to study abroad, factors influencing their decision, what sources of information are available to them and what other factors these students consider while taking a decision to study overseas. Most developing nations have strengthened the root of global education as a trend. Ireland has the highest number of international medical graduates per population; in 2017 half of the medical graduates were international students [3]
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